Today? What a day! Now we could have opted to take a bus from Belgrade to Sarajevo: 6.5 hours (24€) but of course I opted for a private-transfer version which cost us a vast fortune but the plan was to value-add with sight-seeing along the way; afterall, why waste 6.5 hours sitting on a bus?
We got the sight-seeing OK but it was such a shambles in many respects that I think we’ll be talking about this one for a while.
I should have seen the ‘red flags’ when the pickup time changed 3 times. It had been originally advertised for 7 a.m.; then when I communicated closer to our departing Australia, it became 7:30 a.m. Last night before lights out, I had a message saying 7:10 a.m. then a subsequent one saying 7 a.m. Of course MF was sound asleep and alarm set for a 7:30 a.m. departure so I set mine for the new time and surprised him in the morning.
In fact there were 7 paying passengers plus driver plus guide so mini-bus was VERY FULL. Plus, getting luggage for that many people into the boot nearly had me wondering if someone might have to sit on their suitcase. I did feel sorry for the driver as he manhandled bags into position.
Off we set with, I suspect, the boot door not really closed properly (there was an internal light still on). Adis the driver is a really nice guy. Drives like a bat out of hell, but very competently. The guide Emilie was a little more complex.
Our first stop was after 2.5 hours driving. After travelling across the flat plains on leaving Belgrade, we drove up steeply on a winding, sometimes rutted road with hairpin bends through beautiful forests of firs and beech with steep valleys dropping away on both sides. We descend to Bajina Bašta and what is known as ‘House on the Drina’: essentially a cabin perched on a rock in the middle of the River Drina. Very picturesque.
From here starts the Tara NP. We start climbing again: steep, winding road with a poor surface in parts and a series of tunnels.
After a mishap in navigation that required a turn-around, we travelled about 20 minutes along a muddy dirt road to a walking track which we followed up for about half an hour to Banjska Stena, a viewpoint with gorgeous views over Perućac Lake and across to BiH. The Drina River passes through the valley and defines the border between Serbia and BiH.
By now of course we are running behind time. Adis is doing his best: driving at breakneck speed. Emilie is acting as though there is no need to stress, which of course Adis is, as are several of us because we are wondering how we are going to manage the itinerary in the time allotted: presumably getting us into Sarajevo about 8 p.m.
Next on the list is a trip on the Šargan Eight which is a narrow-gauge steam railway built in 1925 and used to connect Belgrade and Sarajevo; it closed in 1974 but has re-opened for tourism. But first we have to get to Mokra Gora to buy train tickets and this is 20 minutes away along challenging road so Adis goes into full Formula One mode. He is keen to try and order the tickets by phone and amazingly Emilie sits there asking us to choose something from her music playlist to listen to in the car whilst Adis tries calling ahead many times (the mobile service is very intermittent) whilst at the same time trying to overtake traffic and massage the vehicle through the corners.
We DO get there in time.
The rail line really is a feat of engineering: it climbs 300 m over 3.5 km, passes through 22 tunnels and over 5 bridges. Lovely scenery even though by now it has started raining in between periods of sunshine.
Adis collects us at Mokra Gora Station on our return and we head up the hill to the village of Drvengrad completely built out of wood and designed by the movie director Emir Kusturica as a movie-set for his film Life is Miracle. Very apt today.
We have ‘lunch’ here but decide to make it dinner (it IS 4 p.m. by now!) and it is an hour that could probably have been dispensed with by asking people to bring a cut-lunch. It also turns into a debacle when it comes to paying the bill as it had been agreed we could have individual bills and use credit card - both of which failed to happen and there was a Mexican stand-off where we agreed to split the bill and pay cash in whatever we had: euros for us and American dollars for the others (no-one had Serbian currency left; afterall, we were leaving the country).
Light is disappearing - it is 5 p.m. We still have the border to cross and a visit to the Dobrun Monastery and to the town of Višegrad.
We line up for the Serbian border (to exit), then drive through ‘no man’s land' to the Bosnian border where there is a long line of cars.
We make it through and pass through pretty country (ravines and creeks) to the Dobrun Monastery: Serbian Orthodox built in 1343. There is a service underway and the monastery is very colourful and glittering in the setting sun.
Next is Vißegrad. This is a very exciting stop for me (as was seeing the Danube in Belgrade and Novi Sad as this fills in a gap in our journey along the Danube over the years from where it starts in Donaueschingen to its end at the Black Sea, sections of which we have cycled). But back to Višegrad: this town is the basis of the book I just recently read The Bridge on the Drina. It is exciting to see the Drina and the tour includes a boat ride along the river and under the bridge (which was built in 1577 by the Grand Vizier Mehmed Pasa, and described in detail in the book).
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Stunning. Great photos. SC
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